Outside Reading #1

Ashley Barham

12/1/15

For the Trail Journals Project, I read three different journals from hikers on the Appalachian Trail. The first entry I read is from a woman whose trail name is Trail Wings. The entry is about a woman who tried to do a thru-hike as beginner and failed after 11 miles. One of the things I have learned in this course about hiking is that you should start out small so that you don't get overwhelmed or injure yourself. Unfortunately Trail Wings did not follow this guidance. Because of her failure, she became depressed and gained weight and felt poorly about herself. In fact, she gained back 55 pounds that she had previously worked so hard to lose. All of this just contributed even more to her depression. Unlike some people though, she was able to pull herself back up. She came back from her slump and has started day hiking. She learned from her past mistake of doing too much too fast and began slowly. She started out with just hiking a few miles and then hiking back to her car. With her dedication, she was able to hike more and more, and was eventually able to hike the entire length of Maryland. Now she has hiked over 100 miles of the trail. In conclusion, she used the trail as a treatment for her depression and was able to pick herself back up.